'Amazing Race' Returns with More Global Thrills

'Amazing Race' Returns with More Global Thrills
(Thursday, July 01 12:02 AM)
By John Crook

They're savvy, they're determined and now they're off and running.

Trailing a cloud of road dust and Emmy glamour (as last season's outstanding reality-competition program), "The Amazing Race 5" gets under way on CBS with a special 90-minute premiere on Tuesday, July 6.

As in previous years, the competition sends 11 two-member teams, each with a pre-existing relationship, on a high-intensity race around the world for a $1 million prize.

While previous editions of the Race got off to a fairly genial, even slightly goofy start, this fifth round feels strikingly different, as injuries and hard feelings surface almost right from the Southern California starting line.

"This is by far the most cutthroat season I have seen in terms of how people have played the game, because the teams have worked out where the equalizers are -- airports, say, where the teams tend to stack up -- so they know when they really need to push," says Phil Keoghan, returning for his fifth stint as host.

"This particular season really has an edge to it in terms of the teams we have chosen. They're edgy, engaging characters, contrasting teams that rub one another the wrong way from time to time. We don't look to create a 'perfect holiday' atmosphere, and the players that come into the game now are just much more charged-up and competitive from watching previous seasons."

That's certainly true of Marsha McCoy, the 26-year-old Florida law student who hopes she and her father, Jim, can work as teammates and pull out a victory, although no parent-child team has fared well in previous Races.

"The most important thing is to have mental toughness," she says. "I loved Danny and Oswald from the second Race, because they didn't stress themselves out. They stayed calm and made good decisions. Our big goal is to make as few mistakes as possible, so we don't wind up 30 miles out of the way."

"We both can get an attitude at times, so mainly we've been working on trying to think and work as a team," Jim McCoy adds. "As a military father, I tend to treat her like one of the troops, but this race is a 50-50 proposition, so I am working on being more flexible."

Three of the four previous Races have been won by two-male teams, and the lone exception, in "Amazing Race 3," occurred when Zach Behr all but physically carried his spoiled, petulant girl pal, Flo Pesenti, through much of the competition.

This year's lineup includes no "alpha male" teams, just Dallas restaurant owners Marshall and Lance Hudes, two brothers who are no gym bunnies.

"We are not going to win this race by sprinting," concedes Marshall Hudes, the older brother at 31. "We've seen a lot of very fit people lose this race early on, because they don't think it through and they make a major mistakes. We hope to avoid that. Anyone who doesn't make a major mistake will get at least halfway through."

Bob Barron, 61, and Joyce Nicolo, 54, a couple who struck up their acquaintance via the Internet.

"The Amazing Race 5" includes a new feature called "Yield," which allows one team to slow down a competitor. Used shrewdly, it can eliminate a rival team, although that same team can become a bitter and formidable enemy if its members manage to survive elimination despite the Yield.

In addition to that new wrinkle, "Race 5" offers new challenges to its teams in terms of the sheer distances they are forced to travel. "This season was one of the toughest yet," Keoghan says. "We traveled more miles than ever before, about 75,000. Most previous seasons have been around 50,000. To put that into perspective, to go around the equator once is 23,000 miles, so we did the equivalent of looping the world three times, although we were zig-zagging, of course.

"It gets pretty hairy. There were plenty of times when I was racing to get to a pit stop knowing that the teams were racing there at the same time. So far, touch wood, we've managed to stay ahead of them, but I always laugh when people think I must get in some nice shopping and sightseeing on this thing. They don't realize it's very intense and the Race takes place over a pretty short period of time. It's a big adrenaline ride, and even when the teams are sleeping, we're usually continuing to move."

Although "The Amazing Race" consistently draws rave reviews from critics and a loyal cult following among viewers, its ratings have lagged behind less classy fare such as the voyeuristic "Big Brother." Encouraged by that Emmy win, however, CBS already has greenlit "Amazing Race 6" to air during the 2004-05 season.

Keoghan says the fans he meets are so enthusiastic he finds it hard to believe ratings have been somewhat soft.

"Of all the show I've ever done, fans of this show are the nicest and the most enthusiastic," he says. "Frankly, it surprises me that there aren't more people watching the show considering the number of people who come up to me and say such nice things.

I can't wait! By the way, who is this John Crook? He just made my good list for the "Zach Behr all but physically carried his spoiled, petulant girl pal, Flo Pesenti" and "Alison Irwin, 23, a former (and widely loathed by viewers) "Big Brother" house guest" quotes!